Jesus the Listener Crucifix

Jesus is hanging nailed to the Cross. He is still alive and in a posture of listening. His body is stretched out forward precisely because He wants to listen more attentively and more closely. His eyes are turned toward the person in front of Him who is talking with Him. Jesus is straining to listen. His face expresses all the mercy of a man who loves without counting the cost and of a God who forgives without conditions.

His face expresses the divine compassion, love, and forgiveness of the human condition, together with the great suffering which His body and His soul are experiencing.

Jesus the Listener manifests in his body the atrocious condition of a crucified man, and the cruel reality of sin experienced in His soul. Spiritually and physically, He feels and lives all the components of the tragedy which is Calvary. At the same time He inspires the person who stands in front of Him who looks at Him and talks with Him, not only to feel sorrow, repentance, conversion and a sense of remorse, but above all to feel love, confidence and the hope of victory which the Passion of Jesus represents.

Jesus the Listener ought to inspire the person talking with him to want to talk with him, to be close to Him and to tell Him everything felt in ones soul and suffered in ones life. The Jesus who is listening is ready to forget His personal suffering to sooth those of others.

The details of the crucifixion are those which can be observed in the Shroud of Turin as regards the place of the nails, what foot is over the other, the length of the hair and beard, the composition of the crown of thorns and the height of the body of Jesus, which seems to have been close to six feet.

The most important feature of this Crucifix is the expression of the face of Jesus, full of pain and suffering and at the same time full of mercy and compassion, of forgiveness and hope, of a joy which words cannot easily express.

The Crucifix must live and remain impressed in the mind of the person who has seen it as the One who Listens with patience and mercy. Jesus on the cross is the presence of the greatest act of God’s love toward each one of us.